The present disclosure relates to a chip electronic component and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to a chip inductor included in an information technology (IT) device, or the like, to remove noise.
An inductor, which is one of chip electronic components, is a representative passive element configuring an electronic circuit together with a resistor and a capacitor to remove noise. The inductor is combined with the capacitor using electromagnetic properties to configure a resonance circuit amplifying a signal in a specific frequency band, a filter circuit, or the like.
Recently, as miniaturization and thinness of information technology (IT) devices such as various communications devices, display devices, or the like, have been accelerated, research into a technology for miniaturizing and thinning various elements such as an inductor, a capacitor, a transistor, and the like, used in these IT devices has been continuously conducted. The inductor has also been rapidly replaced by a chip having a small size and a high density and capable of being automatically surface-mounted, and a thin film type inductor in which a mixture of magnetic powder and resin is formed on a coil pattern formed on upper and lower surfaces of a thin film insulating substrate by plating has been developed.
In the thin film inductor, after the coil pattern is formed on the insulating substrate, an insulating layer is formed thereon so as to prevent a contact between the coil pattern and a magnetic material. However, according to the related art, the insulating layer is only formed on an upper portion of the coil pattern, but is not extended up to a lower portion of a side surface of the coil pattern, whereby a leakage current may be generated due to a direct contact between the coil pattern and the metal magnetic material, or the like. Therefore, inductance has been normal at a frequency of 1 MHz, but has rapidly been decreased at high frequency, thereby causing a waveform distortion.
FIG. 1 is an enlarged scanning electron microscope (SEM) photograph of a coil pattern having an insulating layer formed thereon in a thin film inductor according to the related art. Referring to FIG. 1, it may be seen that the insulating layer is not formed on a lower portion of the coil pattern, such that the coil pattern directly contacts a magnetic material.
The following Patent Documents 1 and 2 disclose a thin film inductor including an internal coil pattern formed on upper and lower surfaces of an insulating substrate by plating. However, processes disposed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 have a limitation in forming an insulating layer to extend up to a lower portion of the internal coil pattern.